Wednesday, 31 January 2018

Sony had unveiled three new smartphones at the CES 2018 - Xperia XA2, Xperia XA2 Ultra, and Xperia L2. While Sony announced the specifications and features of the latest handsets, the price and availability details were not revealed. But now, Sony is all set to sell the smartphones in the US from next month. The Xperia XA2 has been priced at $349.99 (roughly Rs. 22,300) while the XA2 Ultra will be available at $449.99 (roughly Rs. 28,700) and the Xperia L2 will come for $249.99 (roughly Rs. 16,000).

The Sony Xperia XA2 and Xperia XA2 Ultra will launch in the US on February 16 and the Xperia L2 will launch on February 9. Best Buy has already listed the smartphones on its online store. Interestingly, the three smartphones are also live on Clove, an e-commerce website in the UK.

According to Clove, the Xperia L2 has already gone on sale at GBP 199 (roughly Rs. 18,000), while the Xperia XA2 will go on sale from Wednesday at GBP 379 (roughly Rs. 34,200), and the Xperia XA2 will go on sale from February 22 at GBP 299 (roughly Rs. 27,000). All UK prices mentioned are inclusive of VAT.

It is expected that Sony will launch the smartphones in India as its predecessors made it to India last year - the Xperia XA1 in April 2017 and Xperia XA1 Ultra in July 2017. It did not launch the Xperia L1 in India however.

The new Xperia XA series smartphones have been aimed at selfie-lovers. The Xperia XA2 and Xperia XA2 Ultra offer upgrades over the previously launched Xperia XA1 and Xperia XA1 Ultra. Both models also bear Sony's 23-megapixel Exmor RS sensors on the rear cameras. Unlike some of the widely popular mid-range options, the new Xperia XA2 range doesn't have a full-screen, thin-bezel display.

The Sony Xperia XA2 features a 5.2-inch full-HD (1920x1080 pixels) display that is protected with a Corning Gorilla Glass panel. The Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra, on the other hand, has a 6-inch full-HD display.

Both the new Android Oreo-based Sony Xperia smartphones are powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 SoC. The Xperia XA2 has 3GB of RAM, while the Xperia XA2 Ultra has 4GB of RAM. The smartphones have a 23-megapixel Exmor RS camera sensor that comes in 1/2.3-inch size and has 84-degree, f/2.0 wide-angle lens. The camera sensor has hybrid autofocus and supports 4K video recording in addition to the company's proprietary SteadyShot functionality.

Meanwhile, Sony had launched the Xperia L2 with a 120-degree, wide-angle selfie camera with 8-megapixel resolution. It is powered by quad-core MediaTek MT6737T processor and it comes with 3GB of RAM. The phone packs 32GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 256GB via a microSD card. It runs Android 7.1.1 and is powered by a 3300mAh non-removable battery.